One of the blogs that I read frequently is that of Roger Ebert. Y'know, the two thumbs up best movie reviewer ever Roger Ebert? Yep. He's always been an amazing writer, and the article that was written recently about him in Esquire details how he's been able to persevere despite a long rash of horrible things that have happened to him. He can no longer speak, eat, or drink, and yet he's been able to make the best if not even better than the best out of what happened to him. Life handed Mr. Ebert lemons, and he's practically opening his 15th lemonade stand on the moon.
Reading about him made me wonder really what gives us the drive to keep going. The deep down desire to get our butts out of bed every morning and face the day with a stink eye and say, "Bring It". My drive comes from the need to provide food and shelter to myself, but also to give my brain the daily sucker punch to the guts and remind it that the disease that it has can't control me. I've learned from Mr. Ebert that I'm no longer allowed to wallow in self pity. There's far too many things to experience and write about and learn for me to sit on the couch bemoaning how I feel. Instead of bringing myself down, I need to look at lifting others up with hope, stories of my experiences, and examples of success. We all have been blessed with gifts of one type of another, it's time we looked inside of ourselves, looked at the needs of the world, and figured out how to use those gifts to the benefit of others.
To take an idea from Siskel and Ebert, t's time to start doing things that will guarantee me two thumbs up with the one that really matters.
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